V4 size against 5'6" VG

11-29-2013, 01:30 PM

Hi guys, loving the 5'6" VG so much and find it goes in everything from thigh/waist high to shoulder+ with no worries, so so so much fun. I have been looking at the V4 for when the waves are shoulder plus but just cannot decide on size. Part of me thinks to stick with the volume and go 5'10" but the oter parts just can't stop wondering about the 5'8". Also, is there going to be enough difference in their performance to warrant having both. Any feedback would be great

i'm in the process of testing the 5'10 v4 now..nursing a dodgy back and cant find good waves anywhere..!!!... not fully felt it out yet but it definitely paddles and surfs smaller than the 5'6 vg... the 5'6 vg is spot on for me at 85-90kg... equal best full performance board i've ever had...in 35 years of surfing..!!...shreds 1 foot to well overhead....... cant get the v4 to perform as well in crap to average waves... got a couple slightly overhead glassy super sucky rock runs and it felt good there...needs a big stiff fin (vg has ea blackstix in any size waves...v4 needs MB2 carbon lay-ups and still spins around when turning without full rail in...).. if there is water moving or wind or chop out there then it feels pretty small...if you get a good runner to wind it up on it goes nuts..!!.. but so does the vg....if you only surf glassy sucky barrels then it might get the nod... but the vg shreds those conditions AND everything else too.. i get the feeling a 6'0 would compliment the vg... but i'm guessing there... still early days until i get good waves though.... at this stage i see myself riding the vg (when new version arrives to replace my 2 x 2'8 vanguards) and then stepping up onto v4 thunderbirds.... will i ever ride conventional potato chips again...?????

so at this stage i would call (for me) the v4 at the same volume, a step DOWN for GOOD waves....

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Hey Core there is good waves at the spot you first saw me on the Vanguard however in front of the surf club it been on for a month. Loving the VG best board I have ever had have not rode anything else since May I can feel the BP going up on evil bay.

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NN66, thanks for the heads up, i'll suss it...been heading north away from crowds and crap...just back from B-bay... thought i was in hawaii..!!.. surf tripled in 5 minutes and blew a gale too.. was swept and buffeted around like a piece of flotsam/jetsam..!!.. total fail.. V4 was way too small and too lacking in foam up front out there...or am i just getting too old and decrepit..???

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Fazza, if smooth glass it paddles the same-ish... put bump, chop, boils foam etc under it and all of a sudden its a small board...not enough buoyancy in front of your chest.(at my hgt/wgt 6ft/85-ish kg)..i've submarined the nose on messy take off a few times.(this could be the rocker too?)...when on your feet it also "shrinks" as the surface roughs up... eg..i had a CLEAN big powerful sucky wave and it felt great..dropped in, drove a mid face bottom turn way down the line then buried it into and thru a fast big arc cutty .. and then the next day it was swiveling around like a grom board under my feet on a waist high foamy bumpy face... from the couple of good clean sections i've got on it it felt really good.. need to get a good couple of sessions in to try everything on it.. so at this early point i would say ride it the same vol if its for good clean waves.. if for anything the ocean serves up to you then maybe bigger, or maybe stick with the VG and look at a step up like the v4 t-bird maybe.. i'm only thinking out loud at this early point, so dont take this as gospel..... but to summarize your main question.. it paddles the same at best and becomes harder work in soup...

Thanks Core…….i'm 68kgs so a lot lighter than you and mainly surf SW WA waves. I have a 5'10 FST V4 coming this week and really wanted it for cleaner bigger waves with a bit more of a suckier takeoff or even smaller waves with a bit of push. The 5'5 VG should be here in the next couple of weeks and was looking at the VG for everything else.

I would like the V4 TBird for anything else i cannot paddle the VG or V4 into :)

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Thanks Core .i'm 68kgs so a lot lighter than you and mainly surf SW WA waves. I have a 5'10 FST V4 coming this week and really wanted it for cleaner bigger waves with a bit more of a suckier takeoff or even smaller waves with a bit of push. The 5'5 VG should be here in the next couple of weeks and was looking at the VG for everything else.

I would like the V4 TBird for anything else i cannot paddle the VG or V4 into :)

Fazza, how did you like your v4? I read you got the 5´10 being 68kg. I think ïll be ok on the 6´0 being 76kg. would you recommend this board as my good waves board? 6ft+ ?